704 Sunday Onsite Presentation Session 3

Focus on Teachers

Session Chair: Thi-Gam Phan

14:40-15:05

69018 | Are Teachers Willing to Change? Teachers’ Beliefs About Practice Change in Vietnam

Thi-Gam Phan, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan Wei-Yu Liu, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan

Teacher belief is an essential element of education which guides teachers to deal with challenges in instructing, shaping the classroom environment, and influencing students’ motivation and in-class achievement. However, various factors inside and outside the classroom may influence teachers’ beliefs, particularly social-related pressure that makes them comply with their colleagues, curriculum, and student performances. Teachers’ beliefs may also be shaped and changed contextually, leading to an incomplete portrait of teacher beliefs, particularly regarding their classroom practice at different levels of education. Thus, this qualitative study explores how teachers’ beliefs are constructed in the Vietnamese context. The five participants include three in-service teachers and two pre-service teachers across disciplines and school/ education levels in Vietnam with different stages of experiences. The analysis of semi-structured interviews investigated the Vietnamese teachers’ beliefs based on differences between pre-service and in-service teachers through five case studies. Findings revealed that the instructed class education level, the teachers’ differences in experiences, and school types influenced how participants conducted their classroom practices. Their outcomes emphasized either students’ engagement or students’ academic performance. Moreover, the findings also highlighted factors contributing to participants’ changes in instruction practice, mainly their strong beliefs in the theory-practice relationship and “achievement syndrome.” The study provides some suggestions concerning the influences of social and political factors inside classrooms.

15:05-15:30

68929

| Teachers’ Instructional and Emotional Support Promotes Students’ School Belonging: A Multilevel Perspective

Hui Wang, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Facilitating students’ school belonging is important as it not only promotes better student academic motivation and achievement, but also fosters greater student psychological functioning, including better life satisfaction, mental health, and less emotional distress, that eventually benefits schools and society more generally. Teachers interact with their students on a daily basis, thus have substantial impact on their students’ development of school belonging. The current study adopts the multilevel perspective, investigating the influences of teachers’ instructional support (i.e., cognitive activation and clarity of instruction) and emotional support (i.e., enthusiasm and care) on their students’ school belonging. The data included 882 secondary students in Hong Kong and their 114 teachers. Results from multilevel modeling suggested that, at the betweenlevel (class-level), greater teacher instructional support (clarity of instruction) was associated with greater class school belonging. At the withinperson level (student-level), perceiving greater emotioanl support from teachers (teacher caring) was associated with individual student’s school belonging. Moreover, teachers who reported greater job satisfaction than others reported providing greater instructional support to their students. Full mediation was observed with clarity of instruction mediating the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and their class’s school belonging. Results from the present study underscore the importance of teacher job satisfaction and instructional support in promoting the whole class’s school belonging and the importance of teacher care in promoting each individual student’s school belonging.

15:30-15:55

68199

| Promoting Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Knowledge About Equitable Small Group Conversations Through Professional Development

Lois Yamauchi, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, United States

Seongah Im, University of Hawai‘i, United States

Mary Lennon, University of Hawai‘i, United States

Ateisha Norton, University of Hawai‘i, United States

Conceptualized as four domains, Instructional Conversations for Equitable Participation (ICEPs) are small group classroom discussions that include everyone in the conversation and integrate all students’ everyday and cultural experiences. Fifteen teachers from four schools in Hawai‘i engaged in professional development (PD) designed to promote use of ICEPs. The teachers met weekly in teams at their schools to learn about and use ICEPs. Although they met monthly with university-based consultants, the teachers set agendas and facilitated the meetings. The purpose of this study was to determine which aspects of the PD most influenced teachers’ knowledge of ICEPs and how their participation in the activities affected their teaching self-efficacy. Analysis of meeting transcripts suggested that ICEP knowledge was influenced by the number of domains covered, practice calibrating the ICEP rubrics and teachers’ applications of the ICEP rubrics to classroom practice. A self-efficacy survey was administered at the beginning and end of the PD. Mixed-effects modeling using the subscale scores indicated that teachers' self-efficacy regarding instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement became more homogenous and significantly increased over time. Specific changes were found regarding teachers’ self-efficacy to (a) implement alternative strategies; (b) differentiate instruction for individual students; (c) make clear expectations about student behavior; (d) establish routines to keep activities running smoothly; (e) motivate students with low interest in schoolwork; and (f) "get through" to the most difficult students. The authors are currently analyzing classroom video recordings to determine the quality of ICEPs enacted by teachers in this study.